For a lot of cases...probably yeah, actually.
One thing I haven't mentioned yet as it gets in the weeds as to which firearms do what, is semi-automatic and automatic firearms actually need to be modified to fire blanks anyways. Blanks won't cycle a bolt. There's either not enough recoil to overcome the resistance of the recoil spring due to insufficient charge, or no bullet to provide resistance against gas expansion, in the case of recoil operation, or in the case of gas operation expanding gas simply escapes out of the muzzle rather than being redirected into the gas port to operate the piston.
That's actually a problem in some live fire scenarios anyways, depending on what firearm's being used. For example, a friend's Browning Auto-5 won't cycle when firing -- if I remember right, it's been almost a decade since he got rid of the damned gun and over a decade since I shot it -- shells shorter than 2 3/4", or shot smaller than #6. The shell just isn't powerful enough, to provide sufficient recoil to cycle the bolt.
The fix is to overcharge the blank, replace the recoil spring with a lighter spring, and/or restrict the bore to compress escaping gases and boost recoil.
Which is also why I've been quietly laughing to myself about this "visual fidelity matters" crap. A blank's muzzle flash doesn't look the same as a live round's muzzle flash, and never will simply because there's no round being expelled from the barrel. It's actually pretty laughable if you're experienced with firearms, most Hollywood muzzle flashes look like guns still use black powder charges. There's a reason I compared it to "Hollywood explosions".